10 interview questions to help land the best data pro hires

Organizations are desperate to find data scientists and analysts that can help them get the most value from data. These questions can help seperate the best candidates from the rest.

Hiring top data talent

In its recent report "Technology Salary Guide 2019," Robert Half Technology offered a series of interview questions aimed at landing top tech talent. Those questions served as the inspiration for the 10 questions presented here, which have been tweaked for a data science or data analyst job candidate.

Tell me about a recent data project or process that made you better, faster or more efficient.

What’s your approach to working with new or unfamiliar data management or analytics technology?

What are the best ways you’ve found to keep your data management or analytics skills current?

Tell me about your biggest professional data-related project failure.

What emerging data management, analytics or artificial intelligence technology excites you the most?

What was the most challenging data project you worked on in the last year?

What kind of data or analytics projects do you work on when you’re not on the job?

How would you explain artificial intelligence to a person from the 1950s?

Tell me about the best data team you’ve worked with and what made it work so well?

Joseph Galo, application support engineer at MobiTV, Inc., along with other engineers run the daily maintenance and procedures in the network operations center at the company's headquarters in Emeryville, California, U.S., on Thursday, Sept. 30, 2010. Photographer: Tony Avelar/Bloomberg

Tell me about a data project that you worked on that either made or saved significant money for an employer.